Talk:Vasco M. Tanner

Family life

Should we have a separate section for family life, or should I reduce that section and include information about his wife and children within the text about his teaching at Dixie college? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk • contribs) 20:27, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Societies and Awards

Tanner was a member of a bunch of professional societies. I haven't been able to find a style guide page on the topic, but I'd think that only notable societies would be mentioned on his Wikipedia page. Here's the list from the Smith personal history (pg. 63). I found another source for the first two; I'll leave this list here for anyone else who might want to research it further.

Professional Societies

• Fellow, Royal Entomological Society of London
• Fellow, Entomological Society of America
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Fellow and Life Member, Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters
• Member, California Academy of Sciences
• Charter member, American Society of Mammalogists
• Charter member, Society of Systematic Zoologists
• Member, Cooper Ornithological Club
• Member, American Microscopical Society
• Member, Entomological Society of Washington
• Member, The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
• Member, Herpetologists League
• Member, Pacific Coast Entomological Society
• Member, Sigma Xi, Stanford University
• Charter member, Phi Chapter of the Beta Beta Beta and Brigham Young University
• Chairman, Utah Natural Resources Association. Animal Life, 1932
• Chairman, Beta Beta Beta Undergraduate Competition Committee, 1932-1954
• Vice President, Western Region Beta Beta Beta, 1940-1943
• Elected Honorary Member of Beta Beta Beta Biological Society, 1958

Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 19:18, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the list. I think Fellowships, elected memberships in notable organizations, and administrative roles in national/international organizations are worth including, but most other memberships, especially local chapters, are probably not noteworthy; as it is unsurprising for a professional to belong to professional organizations (especially if anyone can be a member of those groups simply by paying dues). A good biography should place greater emphasis on what someone is known for rather than simply what they've done: if multiple secondary sources mention certain memberships, then those should probably be given higher priority for inclusion. --Animalparty! (talk) 19:48, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. I found a newspaper article that mentioned his membership in a few societies, so I included those.Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 19:52, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Evolution

The Smith history also references Tanners views of evolution (pg. 99), and speculates that his tentative conclusion in the BYU studies article was his way of being cautious because other faculty members resigned or were fired for their views on evolution in the past (cf 1911 Brigham Young University modernism controversy). I don't want to do original research... I guess I can cite the Smith publication for the connection between the two events. I'm going to look into a few more sources and come back to this. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 19:52, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

It seems like it would be weird to put in just one sentence about his views of evolution. But if this is important, I don't want to dismiss it. Perhaps a link to the article he wrote under a Works list would be appropriate? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 20:16, 30 March 2016 (UTC)